Two provincial ministries and officials in Ottawa have launched a joint investigation into North America’s largest food distribution company.

Food inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture (OMAF) and officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Ontario Ministry of Health will be fanning out across the province next week to investigate Sysco Canada’s use of “drop sites.”

The sites, which Sysco abruptly stopped using across North America earlier this month, were used to store food products destined for tables in restaurants, school cafeterias and nursing homes.

But a San Francisco-area TV station caught company employees on video in July using the drop sites to store meat and dairy products, some for hours in unrefrigerated storage units and sheds.

“The Ministry is very concerned about this situation,” said Mark Cripps, press secretary for Premier Kathleen Wynne who also serves as Minister of Agriculture. “It’s been a bit of a wake-up call. Certainly, food safety is a huge issue for OMAF.”

Cripps said two of Sysco’s six Ontario-based operations were using drop sites to store dairy products, which OMAF regulates. Sysco told the Ministry all 14 of the drop sites were refrigerated, he said.

A list the company provided to government shows drop sites were used across Southern Ontario. The majority of the sites were places like U-Haul, Storage Mart and other storage companies.

Cripps said in Ontario, all food distribution sites must be licensed and subject to inspections. Sysco will be on the hook for retroactive licensing fees for the drop sites and could also be subject to fines if found to not be in compliance with government food safety rules, he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture is trying to determine how long Sysco was using the unregulated sites, Cripps said.

“It’s good that it’s been brought to light and it will certainly be given attention to ensure that they are in compliance,” he said.

Sysco Corporation spokesman Charley Wilson told the Toronto Sun that the company will continue to co-operate with the government investigation. When asked to if meat and dairy products in Ontario, or anywhere in Canada, were being stored in unrefrigerated units as they were in Northern California, Wilson did not comment.

“What I can tell you is we’re co-operating with their investigation and I would defer to (government) if they want to speak to the specifics about that,” he said.

In a press release issued, last week the company acknowledged that some of their other operations were not “fully complying with our internal food-safety policies and practices.”

“We deeply regret the concern created by our lapse in complying with our policies,” said Sysco president Bill DeLaney in a statement.

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Ministry of Agriculture officials say Sysco Canada has provided them with the names and locations of their drop sites. Sysco Toronto was using 10 storage depots and Sysco Central was using four as drop sites for fluid milk.